InsideOut Travel—The Magazine for Independent Travelers

January-February 2004

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Welcome to our second issue. Now, you can continue reading the saga of Lever Rukhin and his trip around the globe on a BMW. If you want to go around the world yourself but prefer chopping to choppers, read how Josh Krist cooked for room and board in Jerusalem and how you can learn to cook When in Home to open up travel opportunities abroad.

Helene Goupil answers the perennial traveler’s question, “What to look for in a backpack?” Jacques van Wersch talks about his 10-plus years in Taiwan and his adventures in stardom, the Chinese language, and life on the road in A Traveler’s Life.

Amy Fleitas sticks to English in Alaska, although she tries to listen more than talk. Jocelyn Fong gives us the lowdown on how to get a work permit in France and Amy Loftsgordon is in Nicaragua this issue fighting off dengue fever.

We also have news and travel tips for you as well as new links you should check out.

Although we won’t miss the hectic holiday season too much, we were lucky enough to have some great literary travel experiences we’d like to mention: Don George, founder of Salon.com’s Wanderlust section, spoke in San Francisco about his new book, “The Kindness of Strangers,” when someone asked him about dealing with rip-offs on the road in a Q&A session afterwards (we had to chuckle as the question seemed so completely against his message), he responded, “If you’re nice to people, I think it makes it harder for someone to be mean to you. All you need to do is keep an open heart—that is how I avoided many situations that could have turned bad.”

We received as gifts two books we’d like to recommend—“Globetrotter Dogma: 100 Canons for Escaping the Rat Race and Exploring the World,” by Bruce Northam and “Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel,” by Rolf Potts. Very different from each other, the books share the principle that every trip starts as a decision, a change in thinking. Therefore, get your head on right and your feet will carry you into some great adventures.

“Vagabonding,” written for people who want to hit the road for months if not years at a time, has some fantastic links and resources at the end of every chapter—we’ve worked a few jobs abroad so thought we knew the usual suspects for websites and job boards, but Potts opened our eyes to many more. A great thing about both books is the reminder that travel is about time, not money—so easy to forget when living in a society where getting and spending is portrayed as the only viable way of life.

Please drop us a line if you have any questions, comments, or ideas on things you’d like to see in our magazine.

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